


Unexpected

by thecookiemomma



Category: NCIS
Genre: First Time, M/M, NFA Challenge Response, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-30
Updated: 2013-06-30
Packaged: 2017-12-16 15:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/863470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thecookiemomma/pseuds/thecookiemomma





	Unexpected

[](http://s19.photobucket.com/user/thecookiemomma/media/Unexpected-banner_zpsa5a8e3a7.png.html)

Gibbs hadn't been divorced but a couple months when Diane said she was going to marry again. He spent most of the night he found out drunk and even had to replace a couple planks on the _Stephanie_. He watched as she married and lived with a man who was very much like him, but with a droll humor, laughing eyes, and no hair on the top of his head. He knew, from the moment he met the bastard on the case with Air Force One, he was in trouble. 

The two men had had to work on several cases together, which, after the fiasco with Kate's old job, made for a very interesting relationship. 

A couple years later, they were working on a case together, and Gibbs found himself watching the man, understanding the way he moved, and appreciating the way he interacted with his environment. 

“Something on your mind, _Jethro_?” Tobias looked up from the file he was reading to scowl at the man. 

“Not a damn thing, _Tobias._ How about you? Somethin' you wanna say?” He knew he was stepping into dangerous territory here, in more ways than one. Morrow had cussed him out the other day for not playing well with others. The problem was, that in Fornell's case, he wanted to play in a very different way. The problems with _that_ were plenty. 

“Maybe, but not to you.” The sentence was muttered to himself, but Jethro had trained himself to listen to the way people muttered. Between his father, Shannon and Tony, it had been a good thing to learn. “Wait. Did you see this?” Tobias shuffled over, pointing out a line in a report. “Look. He says he talked to Edwards on the twenty-fifth. He can't have. So, either he's lyin' like a dog, or …” 

“He met with someone else who he thought was Edwards. Good work. You wanna check it out?” Fornell looked a little surprised and wary at the offer. “Rule thirty-eight, Tobias.” 

“Which one is that, Boss?” Tony called from his seat. 

“Your case, your lead.” Gibbs spoke up. “You find out the lead, and if there's not a reason to pass it on, you follow up on it. Also means that if you're the one who did the original work, and it needs fixed later, that's your ass.” 

“Damn right.” Tobias agreed with him. It wasn't a rule any agency could write down, but it was definitely the way things ended up happening. “Okay. I'll go take care of it.”

* * *

Tobias and Jethro only worked together once in a while, the breaks between their shared cases three months or longer. Jethro found himself enjoying their witty banter. They'd developed a decent rapport. Over the next couple years, they only worked together on five cases, and the FBI took credit for three of them. The other two, the Fibbies only were there in a informational capacity, so they had no room to steal his kills. He ribbed Fornell to no end about that once, and saw a light in the other man's eyes that he recognized.

To admit being anything other than ramrod straight was dangerous territory in a closed field like law enforcement. More so in a federal agency. That was compounded even more when it was an ARMFED connected to a branch of the military. However, Jethro wasn't one to stay forever in the shadows, not when he saw something he wanted. He waited until the Black Widow had moved on as he knew she would, and then invited the man over to his house to drown his sorrows in bourbon. “She even took Emily,” the man complained. Jethro made sympathetic noises, knowing that with Tobias' job, it wouldn't work for him to have full custody of his daughter. However, he knew the annoyance and frustration the FBI agent was going through. He'd experienced it when he was deployed. True, he'd had the cushion of miles and the reassurance of a still-loving wife, but the pain was similar. 

“Get to see her on the weekends, don'tcha?” Gibbs asked, refilling Toby's glass. 

“Every other. And that's if I'm not on call.” He downed the drink, and held out the glass for more. 

“You're crashin' here.” Gibbs' tone was matter of fact. He wasn't letting the man drive drunk. 

“Alright.” Fornell was getting to the point where he didn't have a care in the world. He drank a couple more glasses of bourbon and began to wobble. 

“C'mon, Tobias. Up you go. Let's get you crashed on the couch.” He grinned, easily supporting his friend as they staggered up the stairs to the living room and got him settled on the old couch. Tobias grabbed at him futilely, more from the need to stabilize himself than anything else, he assumed. Jethro snorted, amused at his drunken friend, and went up to find a bed to sleep in, since Tobias had the couch. 

The next morning, Tobias was gone before he awoke – which was pretty damn early.

* * *

For awhile, Tobias seemed a little distant, like something had happened that night between them. He didn't think he'd done or said anything to offend the man, or Tobias would have punched Gibbs in the nose. So, he kept on going like he always had, ribbing the other agent, getting in his face when he was being an ass (or ignorant), and watching from afar.

The turning point came several months later. Someone had threatened Emily. Things were all jumbled in his mind, but he knew he'd end up coming back from Mexico. One, he'd forgotten how annoying Mike could be when he was bored, and two, he ached to be doing, instead of sitting on his ass. However, he wasn't quite ready to come back full time. So, while he was looking through his things, trying to figure out what to do with them, Fornell showed up. 

“... I came to tell you that Petty Officer Derrick Paulson escaped from prison yesterday.” Tobias looked at him hopefully, and Gibbs' heart wrenched. It was too close. 

“No.” 

“I haven't asked you anything yet. You caught him last time.” Gibbs caught the subtle reminder to rule 38. “Figured you might like to catch him again.” Okay, not so subtle. 

“You thought wrong.” He couldn't do that. Not yet. Not when … 

“He came to see me when I was with Emily.” Oh, god. His mind was jumbled, yes, but the memory of his daughter was forefront. He saw her face when she begged him not to leave. 

Almost without conscious thought, he asked after the little girl. “Is she okay?” 

“For now.” They continued to talk, the conversation heated. Tobias pushed the one button he knew Gibbs couldn't refuse: Emily's safety. Gibbs wasn't sure whether the man knew – like his former team did now – about why that was a button in the first place. It didn't matter. He'd move hell or high water to protect her, because he did not want Tobias to go through the same hell he had. He sighed resignedly, and prepared himself to go talk to Jen.

* * *

When he entered the bullpen, he heard Tony ragging on Tim, and had the strong urge to walk over and slap the back of Tony's head. Until he heard about _why_ Tony was poking. He snorted quietly. That would've gotten both heads slapped, and maybe Ziva's too. He shook his head, and stormed through the door to the Director's office, barely acknowledging Cynthia on the way.

“Just as I was getting used to my door being treated as a door.” Jen's first comment to him was, of course, full of piss and vinegar. He rolled his eyes as she begged off her phone conversation. 

It took a few minutes of convincing, but he got the truth out of her. She hadn't even filed his retirement. He had just taken an extended vacation. He grumbled to himself about her as he left, though his scrambled mind kept replaying that one night in Paris. 

Other than a few mistakes here and there, Gibbs felt good about working with his team, and collaborating with Tobias again. He decided, after finishing up the case, to stick around. Once again, after pulling teeth – talking to Jenny, he stepped back into the role pretty quickly.

* * *

One month later, out of the blue, with no case to prompt it, Tobias called him up. “Gibbs,” the other man started, and Gibbs could hear a little nervousness in his voice.

“Spit it out, Tobias.” He stepped away from the team, gesturing for them to finish their paperwork. It was almost time to quit, and he wanted to get home. 

“Uh, do you have plans for supper tonight?” 

“Not yet. You cookin'?” Once or twice, when they'd been arguing about some stupid thing, Tobias would mention how good of a cook he was. Gibbs wasn't going to turn down free food. 

“Yeah. Thought I'd make you a meal. Thank you for your help with the Paulson case.” 

“Didn't end up bein' 'the Paulson case,' Tobias, but yeah, I'd like that. Where you wanna do this?” Gibbs felt a sense of danger and thrill fill his gut. It wasn't the usual 'danger' warning that came with cases, or one of his team getting hurt. This was the 'thrill of the hunt' Tony had been ranting about when he was talking about one of his movies the other day. The 'chase.' 

“You mind if I use your kitchen?” Gibbs could tell Tobias was nervous by the way he spoke, and the fact that he didn't rise to the bait Gibbs had laid out. 

“That'd be fine. What time you want to come over?” He forced himself to speak with an even voice. 

“You about done?” 

“Yeah.” He leaned against the wall, watching his team work. 

There was a silence on the line, and if he didn't know better, he would have worried about Tobias hanging up or being tongue-tied. “How 'bout seven?” 

“Fair enough. See ya there. If you wanna, you're more than welcome to come earlier.” He shrugged, even though he knew the other man couldn't see it. He glared at DiNozzo, getting him to focus. 

“Naw, seven's good enough for me.” Tobias paused again, and Gibbs waited patiently for his next words. “You alright with pasta and red sauce?” 

“Far as I know, Tobias.” That actually sounded like a decent meal. 

“Alright,” Tobias responded, a slight bit of the old insouciance back. “Later, then.” 

“Later.” Gibbs hung up, and headed back to his desk. 

“We got a case, Boss?” Tim looked up from his computer screen. 

“Nope. Finish up what you're workin' on, and you can go home. We'll finish the rest tomorrow.” 

That seemed to cheer them up. Cheered him up, as well.

* * *

When he got home, the smells in the kitchen made his stomach rumble. “Hey, Tobias,” Gibbs called, putting his gun and badge up and wandering into his kitchen.

“Oh, hey, Gibbs. Thought you wouldn't mind if I started early.” Gibbs held his tongue at the response that came to mind and shrugged. 

“Told you I didn't.” He found a seat at the table and went to pull out a beer, only to be smacked on the hand by a wooden spoon. “Dammit, Tobias!” 

“Uh-uh. Just wait a few minutes. I brought wine.” Gibbs was grumpy enough that he let the retort fly without considering the consequences. 

“Winin' and dinin' me, Tobias?” He looked up wryly at the man, still rubbing on his sore fingers, and blinked. Tobias had frozen, and it was taking him a couple moments to return to stirring the sauce in the pot. 

“And …” Damn, did he sound nervous. “And if I was?” Gibbs knew what that question took. He'd stepped across the line. If Gibbs didn't respond well, Tobias' career was over. 

“I'd say, 'bout damn time.' Thought about the same thing. You were married, then I went and got blown up...” He shrugged again. 

“Yeah. What happened there?” Tobias turned the eye down and moved to sit down beside Jethro. So, this was happening now. Gibbs could handle it. 

“Lost my memory. Before I came to work for NCIS, I had a wife and a kid. Gorgeous little girl.” He had to look up into the other man's eyes, and when he did, he saw that spark of recognition. Tobias understood. “Shannon saw a drug sale. Dealer wasn't even bein' discreet.” 

Tobias kept looking right at him, but Gibbs could see the lines forming into a casefile inside his mind. “Damn. How old was she, Jethro?” 

“Nine, Tobias. Kelly was nine.” He sighed, a gust of air that carried the relief of actually telling someone, rather than them finding out from his record. 

“Well, she-it.” Tobias fell silent. “Think I'd run away for a while, too.” Gibbs nodded, taking the empathy for what it was. “And now? If I push?” 

“Now, I'm ...” He paused. “Think I'm mostly back.” The seriousness of the conversation hit him again. Nobody was joking around right now. “I remember almost everything. Little things I get wrong.” 

“Well, yeah, happens. You can have a damn hard head, but an explosion'll mess it up. Still doesn't answer my question, though.” 

“Stir the sauce. Gimme a moment. I know what I wanna say, but ...” He snorted. Two grumpy old men gazed at each other for another long moment before Tobias stood up, stirring the pot, then shut the eye off completely. 

“Done. You ready?” 

“Look like I am?” Gibbs interjected a little of his normal attitude into his words. “Yeah. Lemme wash my hands, and we'll talk while we eat.” He'd picked up on the double meaning of the words, and stood, moving around the other man to wash and dry his hands in the sink. Settling himself back down at the table, he eyed the food. “Looks good.” 

“Thank you. Mind if I serve?” Tobias looked up, and that worried look was back. Gibbs just lifted his plate and held it out for food. “So.” 

“Yeah.” Gibbs watched him pile the pasta and sauce on to his plate and then stick a slice of garlic bread on the side. “Like I say, noticed you pretty early on. You were still with Diane, though, and I don't poach.” 

“Semper Fi, huh?” Tobias snorted, loading his own plate. 

“Yeah.” Gibbs rolled his eyes, but took a bite of his food. “Damn, Toby, that's good.” 

“Why, thank you, Mister Gibbs.” He spoke in a high tone with a Southern accent, completely sarcastic for just a second before returning to the serious topic. “You noticed? Enough to want to risk ...” 

“Hell, yeah, Tobias.” Gibbs let his sarcasm slide by, focusing, as usual, on the more important thing. “Couple in my town growing up. Both of 'em worked in the clothes store. Where I saw Shannon, actually.” He paused, letting that memory play through his mind, then cleared his throat. “Man worked with his wife. She made the clothes, he ran the front end, did the books. Damn good team.” 

“Yeah?” Tobias obviously wondered what that had to do with them, but he held his tongue, choosing to eat the food instead. 

“Yeah.” He took another bite and swallowed before continuing. “I asked him one time if he got tired of workin' with his wife. I sure got tired of workin' with my dad...” 

“Totally different story, Gibbs.” Tobias sounded amused. 

“Well, yeah, Tobias. I know that now.” Now it was his turn to be sarcastic. “He said 'Best thing I ever did was workin' with someone I loved beside me.'” Another memory came flashing back, and he shook his head to clear it. “I added a rule about it then. 'Find one you love to work with.' Changed it when I messed up with Jen.” 

“Or you messed with Jen, you mean.” Tobias nodded. It was common knowledge among the higher ups of the agencies that Jethro and Jenny had something other than a professional relationship. It didn't take a mathematician to put two and two together. 

“Yeah.” Gibbs ran his garlic bread through the sauce on his plate. “Didn't you promise me wine, Tobias?” 

“Yeah, I did,” Tobias chuckled. He stood up, getting them both wine and wine glasses. It was clear he'd planned this out, because the wine had already 'breathed.' “Go on...” 

“Thanks.” Gibbs took a sip, letting the pungent flavor settle on his tongue. “So, when I started workin' with you, I found that. Don't get to often. Might be better, considering we're ...” 

“Both stubborn jackasses who like to get our way?” Tobias lifted his glass and took a sip. 

“Yeah, somethin' like that.” With a little bit of alcohol in his system, Gibbs felt himself relax. “So, yeah. I'm willin' to deal with the risk, and that's how ...” How he felt about it. “You?” 

“Obviously, or I wouldn't've even come over. I'da sent you somethin' at your desk. But I got to thinkin', yeah, how well we work together, but how much I enjoyed it when I caught you lookin' at me. Been a long damn time since I dated a man, Jethro.” Tobias gazed at him again. “Gonna be a hell of a ride, the two of us together.” 

Gibbs grunted. He sat his fork down, and leaned back in his seat. “Kinda get off on fast rides.” 

“Oh, ho. You're a car man?” Tobias looked surprised at the admission. Gibbs was a bit surprised at himself, too. 

“Yup. Worked on a 1970 Challenger in high school. Loved that thing.” He knew his expression must be a stupid one. 

“Oh, that is a sweet car. Did it have the suspension package?” Gibbs looked over at Tobias in surprise. 

“Yeah. It did.” He chuckled. “Didn't know you liked old cars, Tobias. Woulda told you about her earlier.” 

“When? When we were arguing about cases?” Gibbs shrugged. Man had a point. 

“C'mon. Put your fork down.” 

“What?” Tobias looked annoyed. 

“You haven't eaten a bite in five minutes. C'mere.” Gibbs stood and nodded toward the front room. 

“I don't put out on the first date, Gibbs.” Tobias called, following after him. 

“Damn. Wasn't what I was gonna...” He sighed. “Just c'mere, would ya?” He reached over into a box and pulled out a picture album. “The car's in there, as are my girls.” 

“Oh.” Tobias fell silent. He sat down on the couch, and paged through the pictures. “She's adorable, Jethro.” 

“Which one?” Gibbs smirked, surprised he could joke about it. 

“Both, but especially Kelly. She's a doll.” 

“Yeah. Cutest little thing. You know that thing they do where they look up at you with the big, soulful eyes, and you just ...” 

“Melt like an ice cube. Yeah.” Tobias sighed. “You mind Emily knowing?” 

“If she can keep her mouth shut, no. Wouldn't mind having her over here some time. Know the place isn't that child friendly anymore...” He gazed around the room. 

“Wouldn't take much, though.” Tobias tracked the room with him. “At least in the parts I've seen. Basement'd be off limits, though.” 

“Unless one of us was down there with her, yeah.” Gibbs mused. “Keep it completely off limits, and she'll sneak down there on her own.” 

Tobias chuckled. “Sounds like the voice of experience.” 

“Damn right.” Gibbs nodded. “Hey, if you don't put out, do you give a good night kiss?” 

“Sometimes.” Tobias appeared to be considering it. “Alright.” He relented, and the two men leaned together for a slow, soft kiss that left them both breathless. “Well, damn. That answers that question. But you're gonna have to get rid of that mustache, Gibbs.” Tobias reached up and yanked on the hair in question. 

“Oh, yeah.” Gibbs responded to the comment about their kiss. However, the hair pull got a growl. “Hey!” He leaned in again. “What? Don't like my stubble?” Both men chuckled at the stupidity. Gibbs kissed him again, and then they pulled apart. He looked down at the pictures again. Toby asked him a few more questions about the different people in the pictures, and then gave him another kiss before heading home to bed. 

Gibbs lay back on the couch, thinking over the whole evening. “Whole damn thing is completely unexpected.” He muttered the words to himself before he fell asleep. 

The next morning, Gibbs pulled out a razor, and did indeed remove his mustache.


End file.
